We've recently talked about Zaitsev's rule in elimination reactions, and how the transition state leading to the more substituted alkene is lower in energy. The bottom line in elimination reactions is that you should expect to form the "more substituted" alkene if at all possible. Like in the … [Read more...]

As you've probably noticed by now, organic chemistry is a lot different from physics. When we're looking to predict what reaction might occur in a given situation, we don't have a handy series of equations we can simply refer to.
No, it's messier than that. We take the experimental results, work … [Read more...]

In a blatant plug for the Reagent Guide and the Reagents App for iPhone, each Friday I profile a different reagent that is commonly encountered in Org 1/ Org 2.
Sometime back in general chemistry you (hopefully) learned that hydroxide ion (HO-) is a strong base. It's the conjugate base of … [Read more...]

As part 4 of the most important reactions you learn in org 1, (acid-base, substitution, and addition) here's an introduction to the elimination reaction. This series requires that you understand how to read line diagrams (click for video introduction) as well as to understand what wedge-dash … [Read more...]

Last time we talked about how some interesting electronic effects can lead to unexpected results in organic chemistry. Today we look at three examples of how steric factors can lead to unexpected products (or lack of products). The last example is a case where both steric and electronic factors … [Read more...]